Thrust Vector Lore - The City States

The Consortium City State of Chadeisson. 21 December, 2534

In the Era following the Exodus War, the surface of Earth was made to be utterly uninhabitable. Up above the toxic wastes of the W-Layer and trapped beneath the thin atmosphere of the dead zone, the great City States of the Consortium, Syndicate, and Neutral Powers carve out a fragile existence as hosts to the fragments of humanity.

Situated at around an altitude of five to six kilometers in the sky, these constructs are always built surrounding a centralized gravity generator. The designs of such generators vary, as most of them were built from origin points across the globe in nations differing, but one thing remains constant among all: if the generator fails, the city dies.

This criticality for each state is exemplified in their designs, with the central point being armored and defended to a point where it is impossible and suicidal to destroy by remote bombardment. Therefore, the war between the Consortium and Syndicate as well as minor conflicts between other unallied cities are not focused on the destruction or capture of City States, but instead on obtainment of the resources from the Old World.

In the sky, space is precious. Residential housing is packed between stacks of industrialist facilities, hospitals placed next to guargatian defense structures. Every structure is salvaged from another, and everything once came from the surface. The old is taken to create the new, each city slowly spreading out from the central generator as more metal and processed earth is introduced into the never ending cycle of salvage and reformation.

It is this culture of conservation that permeates all mankind. No question is it, as the nearest source of spare resources is six thousand meters below and shielded by a layer of ancient disease and lethal radioactivity. Because of this, everything is rationed. Food, water, clothing, even air sometimes is kept limited at high altitudes exceeding six kilometers. The only place where these commodities are not strictly rationed is the military, which is why a sizable population of the youth from both Syndicate and Consortium enlist.

There is no up to date map of the World in official circulation, the city states themselves are mobile in the sky, following the ancient patterns of wind as they wander the earth aimlessly. The only real maps are exclusively available to the military, with the specific locations of each allied city state a classified variable, and the probable locations of those belonging to hostile parties hidden from prying eyes.

Today these last bastions of humanity still cling on, mankind pushing forward despite the apocalyptic conditions of the surface world. From the humble family living within a residential block, to the engineers working on the graviton generators, the city state is a living, breathing, being. The humans within trying to keep a decaying system alive for just another day, week, year, perhaps century.

In the sky, there is life and death, because now, it will always be home.